Brisbane South Girls and Infants School facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brisbane South Girls and Infants School
Brisbane State High School, Block H, 1994
Location	112 Merivale Street, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Design period	1840s–1860s (mid-19th century)
Built	1864–1932
Queensland Heritage Register
Official name: Brisbane State High School, Block H, Brisbane South Girls and Infants School, Brisbane South Intermediate School, South Brisbane Primary School
Type	state heritage (built)
Designated	31 October 1994
Reference no.	601222
Significant period	1860s (historical) 1930s (historical) 1860s–1930s (fabric school) 1910s (fabric teachers' rooms)
Significant components	school/school room, staffroom/s / teachers' room/s / teachers' retiring room/s
Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

The Brisbane South Girls and Infants School is a special old building in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built a long time ago, between 1864 and 1932. This building has had many names! It was once called Brisbane South Intermediate School and South Brisbane Primary School. Today, it's known as Block H of the Brisbane State High School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 October 1994, which means it's an important part of Queensland's history.

A Look Back: The School's History

The building known as Block H at Brisbane State High School is one of the oldest state school buildings in Queensland. It's a two-storey brick building that is now part of the Junior School. The main part of the building was built in 1864 as the South Brisbane Primary School. Important additions were made in 1877 and 1932.

How Schools Started in Queensland

This building shows how public education began in Queensland. It was built under a new law called the Education Act of 1860. This law put all Queensland schools under a group called the Board of General Education. It also helped set up primary schools that the government partly paid for.

At first, communities had to pay one-third of the cost to build new schools. This was hard for many families. So, between 1861 and 1863, only six primary schools were built. In 1864, the rules became a bit easier, and eleven new schools were built, including the South Brisbane Primary School. Out of 17 schools built between 1861 and 1864, only a few brick ones are still standing today. These include Gayndah State School (1861), South Brisbane (1864), and Warwick East State School (1864).

Building the South Brisbane School

People in South Brisbane wanted a school as early as 1860. In November 1861, the Queensland Government gave 2 acres (about 0.8 hectares) of land for the school. This land was located on Cordelia and Merivale Streets.

It took some time to collect money from the community. In April 1863, a primary school finally opened in a temporary, very crowded place. This was at the Mechanics Institute on Stanley Street. The government approved the new school in February 1863. They hired Brisbane architect Charles Porter to draw up the plans. However, they waited until December 1863 to ask for building bids. They needed the School Committee to raise their share of the money first.

Charles Porter was the first architect for the Board of General Education. He designed several schools, including the Brisbane Normal School and schools in Little Ipswich and Gladstone. The design for the South Brisbane school might have been similar to the Ipswich School.

The building contract was given to Charles Beauchamp in August 1864 for £1050. The building was finished in time for the new school year, which started on 23 January 1865. Even though Charles Porter designed it, another architect, Benjamin Backhouse, oversaw the building work.

The Original School Building

The first building was a two-storey brick structure. It was designed to hold 300 students. Each floor had one large room. Boys were on the ground floor, and girls and infants (very young children) were on the top floor. The building had no plaster on its outside walls and a roof made of wooden shingles. It also had a front porch and balconies facing Merivale Street. The stairs and coat rooms were at the back.

Growing Pains and Changes

By the 1870s, South Brisbane was becoming a very important area. More people meant more students, and the school became crowded.

• By 1873, at least one play shed was built (it's not there anymore).
• In 1874, a balcony was added to the back of the school building for the girls and infants.
• In 1877, a big two-storey brick wing was added at the back, at a right angle to the main building. This added two new classrooms, each about 30 by 20 feet (9 by 6 metres). It cost £725.

South Brisbane kept growing in the 1880s, and the number of people living there tripled. The school playground, which was often wet and swampy, was filled and made level. In 1888, the old shingled roof was replaced with corrugated iron.

Dividing the School

By the late 1880s, the South Brisbane Primary School was very crowded. In 1888, the Department of Public Instruction decided to split the school. A new building was put up across Merivale Street. This became the Brisbane South Boys School. The old South Brisbane Primary School then closed and reopened as the Brisbane South Girls & Infants School.

Not many changes happened to the Girls & Infants School for the next 30 years.

• Around 1914, a small, single-storey wooden room was built for staff on the northern side of the 1877 wing.
• Around 1917, another similar room was added on the southern side. (These two small buildings have since been moved about 20 metres south, near Cordelia Street.)
• New windows were put in the back wing in 1927.

Becoming an Intermediate School

By the late 1920s, South Brisbane was changing. Many large homes were becoming flats, and young families were moving to other suburbs. Student numbers at both South Brisbane schools began to drop.

In December 1928, the Department of Public Instruction approved changes to the Girls & Infants School to turn it into an Intermediate School. On 31 December 1928, both South Brisbane state schools closed. On 1 January 1929, the former Boys School reopened as the combined Brisbane South State School.

At the former Girls & Infants School, the outside walls were covered with plaster. The large rooms were divided into smaller ones, and the front porch was removed. In August 1929, it reopened as Brisbane South Intermediate School. In 1930, plans were made to make the 1864 part of the building almost twice as big. This work was done in 1932 and cost £1430.

Intermediate schools were a new idea in Queensland after 1928. They had workshops, labs, and domestic science rooms. They were for children aged 12–13 and offered a two-year course to help students move from primary to secondary school. This system was expensive, so it was replaced in the 1940s and 1950s by high schools that offered many different courses. Brisbane South Intermediate School closed on 31 December 1953.

Final Years as a Primary School

In the late 1940s, the Brisbane South State Primary School building (the one built in 1888) was getting old. It was decided to move the primary school to the building that used to be the Brisbane South Intermediate School. So, in August 1954, Brisbane South State School moved back into the building that the Girls & Infants School had left 25 years before. At this time, Brisbane State High School was using some rooms on the top floor, but they were expected to move out.

Student numbers kept going down, and Brisbane South Primary School closed for good on 31 December 1963. It had been open for over 100 years! The school building then became part of the High School. It was used for classes like domestic science and manual training. In 1989, the building was updated and became Brisbane State High School's Junior School. More work was done in 1991. The old primary school building and the teachers' rooms are still part of the high school campus today.

What the Building Looks Like

Brisbane State High School's Block H is a two-storey brick building with a plaster finish. It has steep gable roofs covered with corrugated iron. It stands among other school buildings. There are also two small wooden buildings nearby, which used to be the teachers' retiring rooms. These were once connected to the verandahs of the 1877 wing of the old primary school.

The main school building was built in three main parts. It has a long wing facing north-east (built in 1864 and 1932). A smaller wing sticks out to the south-west (built in 1877). In the main building, a staircase and main entrance separate the 1864 part from the 1932 part. The 1877 section comes out from the middle of the 1864 part. The building has long timber verandahs on both of its long sides.

The front of the building, facing north-east, has decorative window frames and quoins (corner stones). Large carved brackets hold up the verandah. The ground floor entrance has wooden panels over a porch. The verandah has a timber balustrade (railing) and square wooden posts that support a skillion roof (a roof with a single slope). The underside of the verandah roof is lined with timber. The back of the main building has weatherboard siding. It has large casement windows (windows that open outwards like a door) and timber French doors with fanlights (windows above the door) that open onto the verandahs.

The 1877 wing has similar verandahs, windows, and doors to the main building, but its window frames are not decorated. The top floor has a row of large casement windows facing south-east.

The main building has five classrooms on each floor. Three of these are in the 1864 section, and two are in the 1932 section. The building has two sets of concrete stairs with timber railings. The ground floor classrooms have timber-lined ceilings and can be separated by folding wooden walls. The upper floor classrooms have timber floors and timber-lined ceilings with sloped sides. The 1877 building has one large classroom on each level.

The teachers' retiring rooms are now separate from the main school buildings. They are about 20 metres south, near Cordelia Street. These are single-room wooden buildings with corrugated iron roofs. They sit on concrete stumps with wooden panels. They have central wooden doors with stairs and single casement windows with sunhoods. Inside, they are lined with vertical timber panels.

Why It's a Heritage Site

The former Brisbane South Girls and Infants School, now Block H of Brisbane State High School, was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 October 1994. This means it's considered very important for several reasons:

• It shows how Queensland's history developed.

* It's one of the oldest state school buildings in Queensland. * It shows how public education started in Queensland after it became separate from New South Wales in 1859. * The additions in 1877 and the splitting of the boys' and girls' schools in 1888 show how South Brisbane grew.

• It's a rare and special part of Queensland's history.

* It's a rare example of a two-storey brick school building from the 1860s, with several additions. It still looks much like it did.

• It shows important features of school buildings.

* The changes and additions made between 1929 and 1932 are important. They show how the Intermediate School system worked. This was an experiment by the Queensland Department of Public Instruction between the two World Wars.

• It has artistic value.

* The teachers' retiring rooms from the 1910s are well-designed and simple buildings.